There are known various forms of open-ended belts which have a body element provided with reinforcing elements. There are known various means for converting such open-ended belts to endless belts. Most of the conventional means have drawbacks, and do not provide the smooth and long-lasting endless belts as required for power transmission.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,808,901, Berg, there is described a method of forming an endless belt by joining the steel cable ends of the belt to each other by a crimped bushing. Such splicing results in reduced power and service-life ratings compared with V-belts known in the art.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,849, Berg, discloses what he describes as emergency replacement for a regular drive or timing belt. The belt has along its entire length a (female) groove, the bottom of which is provided with ratchet-type teeth. A (male) connector piece having matching ratchet-type teeth is axially introduced into the ends of the belt and, engaging the teeth of the groove, holds the two ends together. This belt is of low lateral rigidity, because of the substantial width and depth of the open groove, which is bound to seriously impair its power transmission capacity. It further suffers from dynamic imbalance caused by the mass of the connector piece, and its usefulness is at best temporary, in the words of the inventor, "to permit the motorist [whose fan belt broke] to drive a sufficient distance to reach a garage for regular belt replacement."
An equally temporary relief is offered by the "Emergency belting and kit" disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,021 which proposes a rigid insert that is screwed into the tubular ends of the belt.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,014, Pollard, describes a method of splicing belts by application of heat and pressure, utilizing the principle of overlapping the reinforcing members in two layers, with the inherent drawback of having a stiff section at the splice and reduced durability in flexing.
A similarly stiff joint is produced by the method according to German Patent No. 29 20 904, Norddentsche Seekabelwerke A.G., which uses a heavy and expensive piece of equipment to fuse the overlapping ends of the belt.